Giants face awkward Daniel Jones question if they can’t save season

Even before Daniel Jones made a few throws on the Giants’ practice field on Wednesday, head coach Brian Daboll had declared that his starting quarterback’s 2023 season is “not over.”

Daboll’s banged-up team, at 1-5, is perilously close to that DOA designation anyway, of course, especially with Jones still waiting to be cleared for contact after missing last week’s loss to the Bills due to a neck injury.

As it is, only three teams since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 have qualified for the playoffs after opening the year by losing five of their first six games: the 1970 Bengals, the 2015 Chiefs and the 2018 Colts. And only the most recent of that trio won a postseason game.

Another loss this week to the Commanders — with the improving Jets on deck in Week 8 following their bye week — would leave the Giants facing the rest of the season to evaluate whether Jones remains their franchise cornerstone at quarterback or whether they might end up in position to start over at the position within a top-heavy draft featuring USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye.

The Giants rewarded Jones last offseason with a four-year, $160 million deal (with $92 million guaranteed) after he fronted the team to a surprising 9-7-1 record and a wild-card playoff win on the road against the Vikings.

That performance showed that Jones — the No. 6 overall pick out of Duke in 2019 — hardly has been a bust.

Still, Giants owner John Mara and GM Joe Schoen didn’t agree to pay him that amount of money not to be a bust.

Complicating matters is Jones’ health. This marks the second neck injury that has forced Jones to miss time in three seasons.

Jones also wasn’t playing effectively — admittedly behind a ravaged offensive line and with offensive centerpiece Saquon Barkley also sidelined — for the majority of the team’s first five games before departing the Oct. 8 loss to the Dolphins in the second half.

The offseason additions of supposedly better offensive weapons such as Darren Waller and Parris Campbell and the drafting of speedy rookie Jalin Hyatt haven’t worked out. Whether it’s been Jones or backup Tyrod Taylor at the helm, the offense hasn’t scored a touchdown in 13 quarters.

Many of the problems stem from an offensive line in disarray.

Starting left tackle Andrew Thomas hasn’t played since suffering a hamstring injury in Week 1, and his backup, Josh Ezeudu, landed on injured reserve this week after hurting a toe Sunday night in Buffalo. That necessitated veteran Justin Pugh to shift from guard to tackle after coming “straight off the couch” to re-sign with the Giants, who originally drafted him in 2013.

To that end, whereas so much went right for Daboll, Jones and the Giants one year ago, the same has not been true in their second season together, including a far more difficult schedule.

The Giants’ lone win came by virtue of a massive second-half comeback against the Cardinals, who also own a 1-5 record to start the season, all without quarterback Kyler Murray. Their five defeats have come against teams with a combined winning percentage of .724 (21-8).

According to Tankathon, the Giants’ remaining strength of schedule is the 10th-hardest in the league (.538), including two of their final three games against the NFC East-leading Eagles.

Of their next six games, however, only the Cowboys (4-2) have won more games than they’ve lost, with each of their next three opponents — the Commanders, Jets and Raiders — splitting their first six games.

Today’s back page

Liberty and just-miss for all

A familiar refrain rings out in Brooklyn: Wait till next year.

The Liberty — representing New York’s latest and best hope for a sports title — came up wanting in the WNBA Finals, dropping a heartbreaking 70-69 Game 4 clincher to the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday night at Barclays Center.

Breanna Stewart, the centerpiece of the Liberty’s dramatic offseason makeover and the MVP of the regular season, was dreadful in the finale: She was held to 3-for-17 shooting from the field and a mere 10 points. Stewart got the inbounds on the Liberty’s final possession with 8.8 seconds left, but gave up the ball when pressured and Courtney Vandersloot’s prayer at the buzzer wasn’t close.

Stewart’s MVP-caliber counterpart, A’ja Wilson, was magnificent for the shorthanded Aces, notching 24 points and 16 rebounds and asserting herself in the third quarter to turn the game around.

“You can’t build a super team in a couple months,” the Aces’ Kelsey Plum said in trolling the Liberty during the trophy presentation.

But can you rebuild it?

Stewart will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason after initially signing just a one-year contract, as will center Jonquel Jones.

A challenging winter awaits for the Liberty, and Becky Hammon’s back-to-back champion Aces aren’t going anywhere.

— Jonathan Lehman

It all comes out in the Wash

The Commanders haven’t been terrible behind quarterback Sam Howell, but Washington’s sports teams right now are largely undergoing a downturn compared to the Philadelphia resurgence to the north (Eagles, Phillies, etc.) that colleague Mike Vaccaro wrote about earlier this week.

It has to be tough for Nationals fans to watch former stars Bryce Harper and Trea Turner mashing on a nightly basis for the Phils, who are two wins away from a second straight World Series appearance.

Since winning the World Series in 2019, the Nats have finished in last place in the NL East in each of the past four seasons with an aggregate record of 217-329 (.397).

The Wizards also have missed the NBA playoffs in four of the past five years, while the Capitals didn’t qualify in 2023 after reaching the NHL postseason in 14 of the previous 15 years. They parted ways in April with head coach Peter Laviolette, who then was hired by the Rangers.

Bouncing back

There was no better way for Gio Reyna to move past the drama and ugliness with U.S. National Team coach Greg Berhalter from last year’s World Cup than with an encouraging two-goal performance in Tuesday’s 4-0 friendly victory over Ghana in Nashville.

The 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder helped the Americans rebound from Saturday’s 3-1 home loss to Germany by finding the back of the net twice in the first half.

The two matches marked Reyna’s first caps with the USMNT since his falling out with Berhalter last summer in Qatar.

“Gio, what I’ve seen from training session No. 1 in this camp was extreme amount of focus and ability,” Berhalter told reporters after Tuesday’s match. “When he plays like that, like he did this entire camp, he’s certainly a guy that can help this group, and it’s really good to see him respond like that.

“Besides the goals, it was how he brings players into the attack, how he is able to be calm on the ball and gives us that calm and the poise that we need at times, but then is decisive when making final passes.”

Next up for the U.S. squad will be the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals next month against Trinidad and Tobago.

The scoreboard: Bad Max edition

Astros 8, Rangers 5: Making his first appearance since Sept. 12, former Mets ace Max Scherzer was tuned up for five runs in four innings, letting the defending champions back into the ALCS.